The Poleis Become Cosmopolitan The Hellenistic World, 336-150 B.C.E.

The Poleis Become Cosmopolitan

The Hellenistic World, 336-150 B.C.E

The Poleis become Cosmopolitan

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THE BIG PICTURE

500 B.C.E. 300 B.C.E.

Persian Empire, 550 – 330 B.C.E.

Alexander the Great, 337 – 323 B.C.E

Decline of the Poleis, 400 – 323 B.C.E.

Ptolemaic Egypt, 305 – 30 B.C.E.

Antigonid Kingdom, 337 – 168 B.C.E.

100 B.C.E.

Philip II of Macedonia, 359 – 336 B.C.E

Seleucid Kingdom, 305 – 64 B.C.E.

The Conquest of the Poleis

Macedonians– Greek-speaking people in the northern

part of the Greek peninsula

– Did not adopt the polis as a political

system like Greeks further south

– Fertile coastal plain and mountainous

interior rich with resources

– Macedonia had been ruled by weak

kings until the rise of Philip II

– How did the Greeks in the south view the Macedonians?

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Macedonian countryside today


Philip II (r. 359 – 336 B.C.E.)– Name in Greek is Philippos: “Friend of Horses”

– Held as a captive in the Greek city-state of Thebes as a

young man; exposed to Greek politics and warfare

– Military Innovations

- 13-foot pikes rather than standard 9-foot weapon

- looser phalanxes than Greek ones

- mercenaries to provide arrows and javelins

- siege weapons like catapults to break city defenses

– Consolidates Macedonia and its gold and silver wealth in

the north, then sets his sights on uniting the warring Greek city-states

– Athenians debate Philip’s threat: orator Isocrates (436-338 B.C.E.) argues that democracy has devolved into violence and corruption and that a strong leader like Philip was needed. Demosthenes (384-322 B.C.E.) argued against a union with a tyrant like Philip since Athenian democracy had to be preserved.

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Conquest of Greece & Death of a King– Philip invades southern Greece and meets a Greek coalition led by

Athens and Thebes at the Battle of Chaeronea (338 B.C.E) and crushes them. Macedonian cavalry led by Philip’s son Alexander

– Victory opens up the rest of Greece to Philip’s control; only Sparta is able to resist. Greek armies made to join along with Macedonians.

– Philip had six wives, with the most influential being Olympias, mother of Alexander, who was from the Greek city-state of Epirus.

– Philip took a young wife in his forties and it was rumored that Alexander would be disinherited; new political alignments alienated many of Philip’s noblemen. One of these men, Pausanias, stabbed and killed him in 336 B.C.E. No one knows what the exact motive was.

– Alexander took the throne and ruthlessly killed off anyone who could be considered a potential rival for the throne. 5


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Macedonia at the end of Philip’sreign, 336 B.C.E.


Alexander’s Youth

– Alexander (lived 356-323 B.C.E.;

Reigned 337-323 B.C.E.) was raised for

rulership and military conquest, but also

with an appreciation for Greek culture.

– Aristotle (384 – 322 B.C.E.) was hired

as his tutor; the philosopher imparted a

curiosity about the broader world into his

student, but Alexander rejected the idea

that all non-Greeks were barbarians.

– When Alexander took the throne at nineteen, the Greek city of Thebes revolted. He showed his ruthlessness by crushing the city and killing or enslaving its populace, and thereafter had no trouble with other Greeks.

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Medallion depicting Alexander wearing a lion’s skin, like Heracles


Alexander’s Conquests– After consolidating control of Greece, Alexander set his site on Asia Minor

and the Persian Empire, the enemy of all Greek-speaking peoples. He invaded in 334 B.C.E., and after several victories, Alexander met the full force of the Persian army led by Persian Great King Darius III at the Battle of Issus in late 333 B.C.E. He met with a total victory, capturing Darius’s family, but Darius himself and many of his men escaped.

– After Issus, Alexander went south and conquered the Phoenician cities of Sidon and Tyre (332 B.C.E.) since they resupplied the Persian navy. He then took the city of Gaza (332 B.C.E.) since it blocked the way to Egypt, by then perfecting the use of siege weapons like catapults and siege towers.

– Egypt surrendered to Alexander without a fight in 332, with the priests declaring him the incarnation of their god Amon, who the Greeks viewed as a version of Zeus. Alexander may have started to believe in his own divinity. 8


Alexander fighting Darius at the Battle of Issue in 333 B.C.E., from a Roman mosaic found at Pompeii, the House of the Faun from the first century B.C.E. (roughly 200 years later)

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Alexander’s Conquests and Death– After Egypt, Alexander headed back into Mesopotamia in pursuit of Darius. After

crossing the Tigris and Euphrates, he met Darius’s forces at the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 B.C.E. Despite being outnumbered 250,000 to 47,000, Alexander’s superior strategy, using a flying wedge at an angle into the center of Persian lines, defeated the Persian force.

– Alexander was welcomed into Babylon as a liberator, and then headed southeast to Persian capital of Persepolis, capturing and destroying it in 330 B.C.E. Darius was assassinated by one of his own guards, opening the way for Alexander to be crowned Great King of Persia.

– Alexander was a great propagandist, casting himself as a great Greek hero like Achilles or Heracles (Hercules in Latin).

– Alexander pressed into northern India and fought one last before his troops refused to go any further. They returned by the desert shores along the Arabian Sea. On reaching Babylon, Alexander died after suffering from a fever in 323 B.C.E., perhaps weakened by heavy alcohol consumption.

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Alexander’s Empire 11


A Young Ruler’s Legacy– Did Alexander want to make “all mankind a single people” as Plutarch claimed?

– Founding Cities: Alexander created many cities that served as sites for Greeks to colonize and spread Hellenistic society and culture. Many across conquered areas were called Alexandria, the most famous being the port city in Egypt.

– Intercultural Marriages: Alexander supported the marriage of Greeks and Macedonians to women from Asia, presiding over the marriage of many of his generals to Persian women.

– Integrated Armies: Alexander had many conquered men trained in the Macedonian fighting style so that they could join his armies.

– Resentments: Many Greeks and Macedonians resented the equal treatment that conquered peoples received under Alexander.

– The idea of one king ruling over a vast empire resonated across Eurasia and across time; future conquerors would visit Alexander’s tomb in Alexandria to pay their respects.

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The Successor Kingdoms,ca. 323 – 100 B.C.E.

• Macedonian Generals: Bitter fights broke out between top generals after Alexander’s death.

• Alexander’s Son: Alexander’s wife, Roxane, was pregnant with their son, Alexander IV, when the conqueror died. Both mother and son were murdered when Alexander IV was 13.

• “Successor Kingdoms”: Even before the son’s death, the Macedonian generals had carved up the great empire into several different “successor kingdoms”: the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt; the Seleucid Kingdom in the Middle East; and the Antigonid Kingdom in Macedonia and Greece.

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The Successor States After the Death of Alexander, ca. 240 B.C.E. 14


Egypt under the Ptolemies– Founder of the Ptolemaic Dynasty: Ptolemy, one of Alexander’s elite cavalry,

takes troops loyal to him to Egypt to take charge of this wealthy region, and takes Alexander’s body with him, burying it in Alexandria (it was supposed to go back to Macedonia). His dynasty ruled as god-kings for the next 300 years.

– Continuity of Life: The Ptolemies lived a luxurious existence in Alexandria, conducting their business in Greek, while peasants along the Nile lived under the same ancient ways, obeying priests and tax collectors. The Ptolemies outwardly took on the role of pharaohs.

– Hellenistic Queens: Ptolemaic queens took a more active role in politics than their Egyptian predecessors. They controlled spending on public works and raised armies, like the famed Cleopatra VII. Often married to their brothers.

– Alexandria: This city became the premier city of the Hellenistic world, with a port bustling with commerce, banks, and a huge light house called the Pharos to guide ships safely into port. It also became a great intellectual and cultural center, with its famous museum and library that housed 700,000 volumes by 180 B.C.E., the largest collection in the ancient world.

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Egypt under the Ptolemies

An eighteenth-century C.E.

imagining of what the

Pharos of Alexandria may

have looked like. It was one

of the “Eight Wonders of

the Ancient World.”

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The Successor Kingdoms,ca. 323 – 100 B.C.E.Egypt under the Ptolemies

The Rosetta Stone– Ptolemy V. (r. ca. 205 – ca. 183

B.C.E.) came under pressure from the priests and armies of other successors of Alexander, as well as a revolt of Nubians to the South.

– To guarantee the loyalty of the priests and Egyptians, Ptolemy lowered taxes and raised the priests’ fees. In return, the priests made sure that Ptolmey be worshipped in every temple.

– This proclamation in 197 B.C.E. led to the creation of the Rosetta stone, which featured both Greek writing and Egyptian hieroglyphs. Rediscovered in 1799, it finally enabled linguists to translate Egyptian written language. 17

The Successor Kingdoms

The Seleucids Rule Asia– One of Ptolemy’s lieutenants, Seleucus, entered Babylon in 311

B.C.E. and captured the imperial treasure and laid claim to the heartland of the old Persian Empire.

– He gave up northwest India in exchange for 500 war elephants.

– He brought in Greek and Macedonian colonists to work as bureaucrats and soldiers: 20,000 came to Asia Minor, and many received considerable farm land and paid no taxes.

– Founded new cities like Seleucia, not far from Babylon, and Dura Europus, on the Euphrates.

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The Successor Kingdoms

Antigonids in Greece– Rulers over Macedonia and Greece who descended from Antigonus the One-

Eyed (382 – 301 B.C.E.), one of Alexander’s generals. He never completely consolidated Macedonia, but died trying in battle when he was 80 years old. His descendents did complete the task.

– Alexander’s conquests brought widespread wealth back into Macedonia, as evidenced by numismatic evidence: 13 million silver coins were issued soon after Alexander’s death. Overall, life in Macedonia changed little since Philip II’s time.

– Life in Greece did change significantly. Inequality in wealth rose significantly; rich Greeks often took the reigns of government during this period, but did little to help the poor. Urban poverty became particularly acute. Yet constant warfare prevented revolutions by being a constant distraction. Jobs became increasingly professionalized, from soldiers to athletes to politicians. Citizen-soldiers were replaced by mercenaries. Talented people headed to the colonies for better opportunities, particularly in places like Alexandria. 19

East Meets West in the Successor Kingdoms

The New Cosmopolitan Economies– The vastness of the Hellenic sphere spurred widespread trade—

common language and customs over a large area.

– A consistent currency known as the drachma is used everywhere, although Egyptian coins contain slightly less silver.

– Athens had been the Mediterranean’s commercial capital at the time of Alexander’s death, but a century later, Alexandria replaced it.

– The Ptolemies grew rich by trading the goods of the Nile, but also through beer brewing, on which there was a royal monopoly.

– Command Economies: Hellenistic kingdoms developed complex bureaucracies to regulate and control various parts of the economy, collected taxes on imports and exports. These bureaucracies enriched the kingdoms and employed a vast number of Greek-speaking officials.

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Armies of the Hellenistic World– Hellenistic world was dominated by war since Hellenistic kings

saw their legitimacy derive from conquest in the tradition of Alexander

– Hellenistic kings needed vast armies—much larger than the ones of the old city-states—since much larger territories were in dispute; Hellenistic kings often fielded armies of 60,000-80,000, compared to the force of 30,000 Philip II used to conquer Greece.

– Mercenary Armies: Kings no longer used citizen-soldiers, but mercenary soldiers who were fighting purely for money, and thus developed a cynical attitude to war and politics.

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Armies of the Hellenistic World– War Elephants: The early Seleucids exchanged

land for elephants with an Indian king since they

provided a big military advantage. The

Seleucids later cut of the supply of Indian

elephants to other Hellenistic Kingdoms, forcing

the Ptolemies in Egypt to use weaker and

smaller African elephants.

– Slavery: By the late third century B.C.E., the

constant warfare led to a huge increase in the

the number of slaves; wealthy households could

own hundreds. The new scale of the institution

further dehumanized the enslaved. 22

War elephant used by the army of the city-state of Pergamun, in what is now the coast of Turkey, ca. 200s-100s B.C.E.


A True Cultural Blending?– A real blending didn’t occur as most places remained in control of top

10 percent of the population, who were the Macdeonian/Greek elite. Knowledge of Greek language and culture was necessary for entry into the elite.

– Travelers included merchants, diplomats, and spies. Even women traveled with a freedom unheard of in the classical poleis, including writers, musicians, artists.

– Widespread travel and intercultural contact was reflected in art; everyday people and foreigners—like Africans—were depicted.

– Greek influence reached as far as what is now Afghanistan, where one philosopher/traveler found a city-state with a gymnasium with a column inscribed with moral maxims from the shrine of Apollo at Delphi. 23


Struggles and Successes: Life in the Cosmopolitan Cities– Women: The new cosmopolitan environment loosened the tight strictures

on women in public space; it was no longer required to stay seclusion to remain respectable. Women were more independent. Some marriage contracts insisted husbands and wives make joint decisions.

– Cities and Kings: Cities now were required to pay some sort of allegiance to a king. Cities were governed by magistrates and councils with popularly elected assemblies handling internal affairs. In return, kings required taxes or tributes which were not that onerous.

– Urban Problems: To keep costs manageable, administrators controlled grain and other commodity prices to avoid disturbances. Crime was not uncommon in crowded marketplaces. Sewerage and water drainage also posed big problems.

– New Opportunities: Greeks turned to big Hellenistic cities like Alexandria, Antioch, and Seleucia for new economic and political opportunities.

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Patronage, Planning and Passion: Hellenistic Art– Royal Patrons: Kings did not spend money on the urban poor, but rather spent

fortunes commissioning magnificent artwork.

– The lavish architecture of the great new city of Pergamum in what is now Turkey is an example of deep royal coffers sparing no expense:

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Patronage, Planning and Passion: Hellenistic Art– Sculpture: After cities were designed, kings spent lavishly on

sculpture that would adorn public spaces and complement the magnificent buildings.

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Laocoön and His SonsBy three sculptors from the islandRhodes, ca. 25 B.C.E.


Resistance to Hellenism: Judaism, 323-76 B.C.E.– Hellenized Jews: Some Jews compromised with Hellenized culture

and learned Greek, even translating ancient Hebrew texts into Greek in a document called the Septuagint in the 200s B.C.E. (third century).

– Combining Jewish and Greek Religion: When the Seleucid King Antiochus IV (175-163 B.C.E.) intended to combine Jewish worship with Greek worship in the sacred temple in Jerusalem—killing swine on an altar—it proved too much for many Jews and they revolted.

– Maccabean Revolt: In 166 B.C.E., Judas Maccabeus (“Judas the Hammer”) led the revolt and defeated the Seleucids. The Jews were thus able to create an independent state called Judea. The Jewish priests rededicated the temple in 164 B.C.E. and honored the occasion annually with an eight-day feast of lights: Hanukkah.

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The Search for Truth: Hellenistic Thought, Religion, and Science

A Life of Learning, Theater, Literature– Education: Hellenistic kings encouraged education systems for

boys. At 7, they went to private schools to practice writing, and then at 14 there curriculum was expanded to literary exercises, geography, and the advanced study of Homer.

– New Comedy in Theater: Comic work by playwrights like Menander (ca. 342-292 B.C.E.) did not touch on political satire, but focused on the plight of the individual.

– Hellenistic Novels: Romantic works in which young men fall in love at first sight with almost unobtainable women. Both the New Comedy plays and novels were escapism from a tough urban reality.

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Cynics, Epicureans, and Stoics: Cosmopolitan Philosophy– Cynicism: Philosophical movement founded by Diogenes that rejected

the material world as false. People would be happier if they rejected it. Diogenes supposedly lived in a tub to demonstrate his rejection of the world.

– Epicureanism: This movement founded by Epicurus believed that the whole world was purposeless collection of randomly colliding atoms, so it makes the most sense to pursue individual pleasure to achieve happiness.

– Stoicism: This movement founded by Zeno held that the way to happiness was to reject extremes of passion and face pain, suffering, anger, and even joy in a calm and detached way.

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• New Religions of Hope– “Mystery Religions”: These religions usually focused

around fertility goddesses like Demeter, Cymbele, and the Egyptian goddess Isis.

– These religions involved public celebrations and feasts, and offered their followers the hope of an afterlife—something few other ancient religions did (and is perhaps where

Christians got the idea)

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• Hellenistic Science– Medical Advances: Herophilus (ca, 335 - ca. 280 B.C.E.)

makes big advances in anatomy by breaking the Greek taboo on dissection.

– Mathematics and Astronomy: Euclid’s elaborate and elegant geometry formulations allows for major advances in astronomy.

– Archimedes: A native of Syracuse on Sicily, he built on Euclid’s insights to be the first person to express the measure of pi and invented the compound pulley to lift heavy objects.

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The Poleis Become Cosmopolitan The Hellenistic World, 336-150 B.C.E.

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